If you tend to believe the professional reviewers, you would probably avoid this game at all costs, and you'd be missing out on one of the few really good exclusive Xbox titles. I never played the first game in the series, but I loved the second game, which many feel is inferior to the first. This new edition incorporates elements from one and two while adding new stuff and presenting it all in 3D, dolby digital, and voice acting.

GRAPHICS:

Curiously, as good as the graphics are, they are not the best the Xbox is capable of; however there are some downright marvels here. The invisible bridges become like blue glass when you walk over them and, at least to me, are one of the best sights in the game. Mostly though, you will be more concentrated on the game and not notice too many things, like the footprints that are done oh so well. You also won't notice things like slow down and other technical problems, because there aren't any. If you come to a structure that would otherwise block your view, it becomes invisible, a nice touch that others should do.

MUSIC/SOUND:

I hate this kind of music, but love the way it is implemented here. The gospel choir that introduces each level and sings about your mission is wonderful. The voice acting is very good, and the comments are very funny. Some of the dialogue is maybe inappropriate for the very young, but the game defaults to naughty mode, and can be reset to nice mode; they thought of everything.

CAMERA/CONTROL:

Much has been made about the fact that the camera here is so good. Well, it really is. Taking a top down approach, you will only need to turn the camera sometimes with the right stick, and nothing ever blocks your view because of becoming invisible, as I mentioned above. The controls are oh so simple and intuitive that the learning curve is almost non existent. The controls are super responsive, and the game even uses the rumble effect for finding hidden items, it doesn't just use it for effect, but also for purpose, which too many games don't.

GAMEPLAY:

The game has thirty levels, and five or six outer worlds. You must collect keys to progress and complete missions in the levels. Obviously, your goal is to complete all the levels and get to the bottom of what is going on and meet that final boss. You have to funkify earthlings in order to earn points and get promoted by the wise man in the carrot suit. Finishing the game does not require you to funkify all earthlings except on certain levels, nor do you need to get all the keys, or collect a lot of money; but it definitely helps. Besides the regular levels, there are a ton of mini games, some incredibly easy, and some frustratingly hard. You also need to collect flies because 100 will give you a 1 up. The game starts out extremely easy, but gets progressively harder, which is why it would behoove you to funkify everyone, and get as many presents as you can. Then there are also the 12 vinyl albums you have to find, which really aren't that hard to get.

VALUE:

While this game does not look to be the longest of games, it has tons of replay value. First off, in the mini games, you can get any of three rankings, with the highest being pretty darn impossible. You can replay the whole game as the other two you did not do first, which not only will give you all new comments, but, after a certain point in story mode you can use random mode and get all new placements every time you play. Still not satisfied, then try this. New levels and new playable characters downloadable from Xbox live, and since Xbox is the only system with a hard drive, it is the only system to be able to do this, for now.

FINAL COMMENTS:

The bad reviews this game has gotten are inconceivable, did these people even play the game for more than ten minutes? Where else can you find a game that is just difficult enough to be challenging, while not really being hard at all, and yet lasts a long time, and is genuinely funny. This is a game that every Xbox owner will want to own.